BT announce 1Mbit RADSL available now.

spongebob

The basic story is on the Reg but there is a catch of course.....please note.

In Ireland RADSL is currently rated to provide a MAX 512k service out to 4km from the exchange.

In the UK, the 'apparently superior' BT RADSL technology is used to provide a Max 512k service out to 6km from the exchange....a 50% better performance than that of €ircon . Its not just the cheaper and nastier wiring in Ireland either. One reason for this extra reach is that the BT test is somewhat less ruthless than the €ircon one on a given line. It would be possible for €ircon to extend its service to many more people in Ireland in the morning if it did the same as BT and relaxed the criteria (Db levels and whatnots) in order to pass more . The downside is that we would no doubt have to listen to 'honest' Dave McRedmond on a guff peddling mission to moronic NUJ members again .

The 1Mbit service, run over lines that have undergone the same test in the UK as the 512k does will only work out to slightly half the distance that the 512k service does. Thats to say 3.5Km and not 6km or 58% of the distance. This is noted in the article linked above ...and elsewhere.

I am not aware of the population densities in equal concentric circles from all Exchanges in Ireland, I suspect that the inner 1km is about as dense as the outer 1km but I'll let the great Demographer Ripwave pronounce on that seeing as he is the acknowledged global expert on these things .

With a bit of the oul Pi x (R x R) we get as follows. Eircom covers .c. 2,000,000 persons or so from c. 150 enabled exchanges or 13300 persons per enabled exchange, this calculation is crude but no matter as you will see....and only up to 4km out. I assume a 'perfect' 4km with straight wires .

a 1km circle is 3.14Km in area
a 2km circle is 12.56km in area
a 3km circle is 28.26km in area
a 4km circle is 50.24km in area
a 5km circle is 78.50km in area
a 6km circle is 113.14Km in area

As the 1Mbit service works out to 58% of the reach of the 512k service we shall multiply 4Km x 58% which gives us a radius of 2.32km or an area of 16.9Km Square which is a lot less than 50.24km Square. It is 33.65% of the land area in fact .

THEREFORE

If Eircom persist with their PRESENT test and launch 1Mbit RADSL it will be available to only 33.65% of the population who can currently get the 512k Product, I mentioned a figure of 2,000,000 for that so only 673000 will be able to get the 1Mbit product . I have assumed the population to be equally dense as i said.

UNLESS

€ircon change their RADSL test to one more like the BT one in the UK which allows passes at up to 6km if the wiring is OK in which case far more people will be able to get the 1Mbit product as the pass reach will go from 2.32km to 3.5km covering 38.46Km squared and not 16.9Km squared. The Area c'overed' will increase from 50Km squared to 113Km squared because of the test relaxation. 'honest' Dave will be spouting away unchecked about how €ircon have increased their BB coverage by over 100%

FINALLY

Assume that the usual crop of dopey Irish Journos will not read these figures and are incapable of calculating them themselves anyway and will consequently report 'honest' Dave going around saying that €ircon have enabled 1000's of homes overnight for BB ....which they have not. Wait for the 'honest' Dave special in February and watch ENN and Jamie and Ailish regurgitate it.

M

Praetorian

33.65% would be an extraordinarily low figure. Surely as part of the test, Eircom will realise that they must relax the line quality criteria. Also these figures do not inspire confidence for the future. Are we going to be stuck with 512 / 1024k speeds indefinitely? Surely Eircom have future proofed, at least a little bit?

Muck do you think Eircom will release the 1m/bit service shortly? I presume they will offer 1024x256; 1024x128 would be pointless.

spongebob

Originally posted by Praetorian
33.65% would be an extraordinarily low figure.

Not half as low as the Geographic coverage of RADSL if they dont.

250 ADSL exchanges (its about the amount €ircon expect to have done by 2007) covering 50.24KM2 each would therefore cover ..assuming perfect distribution and dead straight wires ......a total of 12560 KM square. The state has a land area of 68000 KM square so €ircon have committed themselves to a grand total of 18.5% Geographic coverage by 2007which is most generous by €ircon standards. 81.5% of the state will not have DSL of ANY kind in that situation. By simply relaxing the test €ircon could get that figure up to Almost 42% coverage out of the same number of exchanges.

Muck do you think Eircom will release the 1m/bit service shortly? I presume they will offer 1024x256; 1024x128 would be pointless.

1024x128 is what they have discussed internally , it is far less complex to administer from their point of view. The reason is that the RA in RADSL means Rate Adaptive but the Rate adation occurs on the downstream leg only. Thats why the current product guarantees 256k minimum and is decribed as an UP TO 512k product.

The new product will guarantee 256k as well and UP TO 1024k the T&C's will consider you to be a 1024k customer if you exceed 512k at all. It is unlikely that the new product will appear before the newer test is deployed but it may be that the test will be carried out surrepticiously before it is announced formally. Watch out for some people passing the line test at a suspiciously long distance from the exchange.

Then await the uncritical regurgitation of €ircon spin and guff from the usual sources .

M

godfrey

gIt would be possible for €ircon to extend its service to many more people in Ireland in the morning if it did the same as BT and relaxed the criteria (Db levels and whatnots) in order to pass more ......


sure why would they do that, ffs, when there's so much more money to be made by restricting us to dialup?

€ircon have a really nice big tower here in Limerick, and could, potentially, at the drop of a hat, offer wireless BB to a large section of Limerick city. instead, the entire northside (on the caherdavin exchange) cannot, and probably will not for some time, be able to sign up for ADSL.

sure you can vote.... me arse - what a banana republic

g

spongebob

€ircons definition of available is not the same as ours Godfrey ....look at all those pairgains out there . If an exchange had 1000 lines and if 10 could get DSL then 'honest' Dave will count all 1000 as enabled.

Many 'new suburbs' have the same problem as yours. Areas along the Navan road in Dublin and much of Knocknacarra in Galway have no ADSL either even though the copper is new. The equipment used and the tiny size of the exchanges themselves militates against the deployment of DSL.

Only a forcible local campaign with strong support from industry in the affected areas will highlight the issue and produce the desirable result. At least you live in Limerick where alternative ducting is being built into newer developments for the past year or so. No other local authority has a clue.

On the other hand I live in a very rural area where ADSL deployment is not yet technically and economically feasible so there is no point campaigning for it. The problem is not the exchanges themselves they have plenty of space and frequently have fibre backhaul.

M

godfrey

Originally posted by Muck
€ircons definition of available is not the same as ours Godfrey ....look at all those pairgains out there . If an exchange had 1000 lines and if 10 could get DSL then 'honest' Dave will count all 1000 as enabled.

Many 'new suburbs' have the same problem as yours. Areas along the Navan road in Dublin and much of Knocknacarra in Galway have no ADSL either even though the copper is new. The equipment used and the tiny size of the exchanges themselves militates against the deployment of DSL.

Only a forcible local campaign with strong support from industry in the affected areas will highlight the issue and produce the desirable result. At least you live in Limerick where alternative ducting is being built into newer developments for the past year or so. No other local authority has a clue.

On the other hand I live in a very rural area where ADSL deployment is not yet technically and economically feasible so there is no point campaigning for it. The problem is not the exchanges themselves they have plenty of space and frequently have fibre backhaul.

M

its really just a big mess, isnt it? I have to say, once again, only for the guys at the mid-west WAN, Id probably have left the country (well, the country side!) by now

g

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Muck
Only a forcible local campaign with strong support from industry in the affected areas will highlight the issue and produce the desirable result. At least you live in Limerick where alternative ducting is being built into newer developments for the past year or so. No other local authority has a clue.

What would work well, I think, is a specific campaign for a supplier of broadband other than Eircom. By this I mean a supplier that does not rely on Eircom's last mile whatsoever.

Even if the desired goal is DSL (for whatever reason) this approach is more likely to get that DSL since the one thing Eircom fear is being marginalised. The thing Eircom wants people to believe is that they are the only people capable of doing broadband. The phrase "We are building broadband Ireland" has been repeated endlessly over the past week. By threatening to bypass them, you are putting them under far greater pressure than simply begging them directly to upgrade the local exchange. This is in addition to the fact that if they don't upgrade the exchange they run the risk of losing business to another company.

Sure, if they upgrade the exchange, they will still be competing for ISP services with Esat, Netsource and UTV, but these companies still depend on Eircom for the wholesale bitstream product and Eircom still control the speed, contention ratio and the underlying bitstream price. It is not proper competition.

spongebob

Always remember that the €iron ducts in housing estates do not belong to €ircon. They were put in by the builder (he put €ircon hatches on them too ) and were 'taken in charge 'by your council in due course. At no point did €ircon own them.

They do own the wires in the ducts so be careful with them as you pull the neighbourhood fibre through.

They also own the poles in rural areas becasue they themselves put them in so nobody else can use thm.

The Limerick difference is that another duct will be provisioned along with the traditional €ircon one. The local authority can explicitly permit anyone they want to use that. The current ducting is in a limbo situation because even though the local authority owns it they may be liable if alternative copper infrastructure is added and if it interferes with €ircon......but as fibre will not interfere with the copper in there it is no problem to pull it through.

Nobody is going to stop you .

M